Having brought this up in another thread I thought I'd post a thread of my own.

Basically, it's my belief that as an older gamer (40 years old) having played games since the mid-1980's, I tend to approach games differently to younger gamers. All three of my kids love games but seem to appreciate games for different reasons to me - they've been brought up on high polygon counts and impressive physics engines, which they tend to take for granted. Having started off with a ZX81 in 1984 I seem to approach games from a different angle. Any other iOS gamers found the same thing?

Forget the United Nations - the AppStore can bring us all together on a global scale, as we all, as day dawns in whatever country we live in, get to experience the wonder that is a new game on our iOS devices...

On iOS? Too many to mention; everything from small games like Jetpack Joyride, doodle jump and tiny wings through retro games like the hookchamp series, through to bigger games like Dead Space, Final Fantasy 3, MC2...the list goes on.

On other platforms? I loved text based adventures in the 1980's, then Nintendo games like Super Mario and Zelda - more recently my favourite games have been Half Life 2, Fallout 3 and Bioshock - which I would love to see appear on iOS! Ken Levine I hope you're listening...

Forget the United Nations - the AppStore can bring us all together on a global scale, as we all, as day dawns in whatever country we live in, get to experience the wonder that is a new game on our iOS devices...

Having brought this up in another thread I thought I'd post a thread of my own.

Basically, it's my belief that as an older gamer (40 years old) having played games since the mid-1980's, I tend to approach games differently to younger gamers. All three of my kids love games but seem to appreciate games for different reasons to me - they've been brought up on high polygon counts and impressive physics engines, which they tend to take for granted. Having started off with a ZX81 in 1984 I seem to approach games from a different angle. Any other iOS gamers found the same thing?

That's pretty much it universally in this industry. I'm an older gamer, and notice many of today's games which visually are a knock out, go under a knife with the younger set (I'm talking pre-teen to 20-something). I read comments like "the worst graphics" and "look at that crappy resolution" and I'm scratching my head thinking are they seeing why I see? This is what attracts me to the iPad -- the monster-sized selection allows me to choose games similar to what I grew up with, and plenty of indy titles that stray off the beaten path.

I had some of my cousin's teenage kids over one day - pulled out MAME on my PC and cycled through hundreds of games. All they kept saying was "that cool, you got anything else"? I finally switched inputs to the 360, threw up a game from last year called DarkSiders, and they were transfixed the rest of the day.

I'm in my 30's and I feel the same way. My 15 year old nephew, who I often talk about games with, makes me scratch my head at times. Like the time I showed him Devil May Cry (one of his favorite console games of all time) on my wife's iPod. All he could comment on were how stripped down the game was and how crappy it looked graphically. While I do agree Capcom could have done a better job with the iOS version, I still tried to explain to him the limitations of the hardware when the game was released, and why it doesn't look as good as it would have on, say, a PSP. I don't think he really got it, though.

I think kids simply take quality of things for granted, and become critical of things when they don't meet their expectations. It's not just games, it can be anything. I remember as a kid, the B-52s where one of my favorite groups. When I saw them perform on Saturday Night Live (which was the first time I ever heard any music that I was familiar with being performed live), I was shocked and disappointed at how different they sounded live versus on tape (yeah, cassettes, not CD, haha). I just didn't have a clue of the differences between live music and studio recorded music. I think that kind of naivety can account for a lot of why kids tear apart perfectly awesome productions of any kind.

And, just to throw it out there, As a 30-something guy, my favorite iOS games are easily Sword & Sworcery, Jetpack Joyride, Infinity Blade (even though I can't bring myself to grind it out to infinity...), and Dragonvale.

A lot of today's gamers are what I would call graphics whores. If the game has not got the latest game engine it's not worth playing. I'm 37 and first started playing games on the spectrum 48k (1985 ish I think). The great thing I like about iOS are the Indy games developers and that graphics do not make a great game. Also the price point means I can try a great number of different games and not feel out of pocket unlike for instance with a PS3 game, with three kids I can afford to buy more games unlike again PS3 & Wii.
Another great thing is also the release of the Icade for IPad, which has some truly amazing games supporting it.
My favourite games are many including Galaxy on Fire 2, Classic Doom, Warblade Hd, Space Inversion Hd, Megaworm, Hungrymaster and Real Racing 2.

I am 40 and my son is 17 we do like a lot of the same games. However, I do know enough that my son is not going to think system shock 2 is one of the greatest games of all time, he would spend the whole time saying ughh look at the graphics.

Personally, I am not into the whole retro thing that a lot of ios games have going on, but I do understand the appeal. I just think a lot of them get a pass for simply being retro, but the core game play is crap. I also think a lot of classics are best left as that, "classics". The games simply don't hold up anymore, as they rely on old conventions that weren't even fun the first time around, but we overlooked them because that was all we had.

On the other hand a lot of new games get a pass for just having shiny things yet they are so dumbed down, I am bored in 5 minutes. Not naming any games, but I think a very recent review on the front page nailed it on the head. Pretty things are nice to look at but give us an engaging game to play. If you can't do both, then please just drop the graphics and focus on the game.

And, just to throw it out there, As a 30-something guy, my favorite iOS games are easily Sword & Sworcery, Jetpack Joyride, Infinity Blade (even though I can't bring myself to grind it out to infinity...), and Dragonvale.

One of my other favourites on iOS is GTA Chinatown Wars - which was the closest iOS has ever got to the GTA experience IMHO. I've seen a lot of negative comments about it because it isn't in 3D and next-gen graphics - but what people didn't seem to realise is that if you created a fully 3D open world gta game on iOS it wouldn't work because so many things would have to be lost. Chinatown wars is superb as all the detail of a living, breathing city is there; all the details that make GTA games what they are, and it was also a nod to the first GTA games that were top-down. I'm not sure whether its an age thing but a lot of people just complained because it wasn't the 3D they expected from console versions.

Forget the United Nations - the AppStore can bring us all together on a global scale, as we all, as day dawns in whatever country we live in, get to experience the wonder that is a new game on our iOS devices...

The great thing I like about iOS are the Indy games developers and that graphics do not make a great game. Also the price point means I can try a great number of different games and not feel out of pocket unlike for instance with a PS3 game, with three kids I can afford to buy more games unlike again PS3 & Wii.

I agree. What the AppStore allows me to do is to try out a lot of different games which are affordable and not too time consuming. Like you I've got 3 kids and I work full time, but with iOS games I can continue my interest in gaming without it affecting real life. I still play the occasional bigger games on my xbox360 but most of my gaming now is on iOS - it's easier to find time to play on my iPod touch and it doesnt cost the earth.

By the way - not sure whether it's coincidence or an age thing, but I've seen more intelligent replies to this thread than I've seen for a while on Toucharcade. Thanks!

Forget the United Nations - the AppStore can bring us all together on a global scale, as we all, as day dawns in whatever country we live in, get to experience the wonder that is a new game on our iOS devices...

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